Apple apologizes for Maps app

Apple Maps has been panned and criticized since its launch with iOS 6, and
now we know just how bad it is. CEO Tim
Cook released an apology on Apple's website this morning, saying the company "fell
short" on its commitment to bring world-class products to its customers.

The letter is below:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best
experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last
week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the
frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to
make Maps better.

We
launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we
wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such
as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps.
In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There
are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with
more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new
Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our
customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of
the feedback we have received from you.

While
we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like
Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites
and creating
an icon on your home
screen to their web app.

Everything
we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know
that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps
lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Yes, it's Friday!

Meanwhile, the top trending topic on Yahoo! is the
Bikini Basketball League. Yes, there is
such a thing. The league launched its
website, declaring the league begins in 36 days.

The teams include the New York Knockouts,
Chicago Desire, Atlanta Fleet Angels, Orlando LadyCats, Miami Spice, Los
Angeles Ice and Hollywood Hotties. The
league even has a Twitter account @BikiniBall.

Yes, it is Friday.

It really was one of those weeks for Erin Moran,
former child star who played Joanie Cunningham on Happy Days. Moran, now 51, is homeless, bouncing from
motel to motel, after getting booted from her trailer park home in Indiana,
according to RadarOnline.com. The
website reports that her mother-in-law kicked her and her husband out of the
trailer home because of their "hard-partying ways." Back in June, reports surfaced that Moran
and her husband lost their California home to foreclosure.

The actor Herbert Lom has died at the age of
95. He will be best remembered as the
frustrated boss of Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies. The Czech-born actor played in various
movies over the years. He had fled Czechoslovakia
for London just before the Nazis invaded in 1939. His parents survived the invasion, but his
girlfriend at the time was killed in a concentration camp. Lom found success on stage in London, and
eventually moved to Hollywood where he found more success in movies such as The
Seventh Veil with James Mason in 1945 and Night and the City in 1950. He was also an author, writing two
historical novels: "Enter a Spy: The Double Life of Christopher
Marlowe" and "Dr. Guillotine: The Eccentric Exploits of an Early
Scientist."

(AP Photo)

Also lots of buzz this morning about an actor in the
series Sons of Anarchy. Johnny Lewis
allegedly killed his landlady, dismembered her cat and jumped off a roof to his
death in Los Angeles. He was only
28. Lewis was once romantically
involved with singer Katy Perry, but his life had been in a downward spiral
according to multiple reports. Police
were investigating whether his rampage may have been fueled by a new synthetic
drug called Smiles.

Singer Ke$ha has announced that she has been romantically involved with a
ghost. She told Ryan Seacrest that her
song "Supernatural" is about her "experiences with the supernatural,
but in a sexy way. I had a couple of
experiences with the supernatural… I
don't know his name. He was a ghost! I'm very open to it." Right.
Her new album Warrior is due out on December 4.

Wild weather video from a Russian dashcam.
This video shows lightning striking an SUV on a highway.

Then we have a compilation of the world's smallest dunker. Porter Maberry from Grand Rapis, Michigan may
only stand 5'5" but boy can he jump!

09/27/2012

Refs Return, Avalanna and the $65-million Offer

Good morning!

It only took one giant controversy to end the NFL
refs lockout. Late last night, after 2
days of marathon negotiations, the NFL and referees' union reached a tentative
deal to end the lockout that began in June.

The real NFL refs last seen at the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

The 8-year agreement is the longest ever reached between the two
sides. So the real refs will be back on
the field starting tonight when the Browns and Ravens play in Baltimore. Twitter lit up with reaction as word spread
that the replacements were back on fantasy football duty and the real refs were
returning. "Welcome back
REFS," Bills running back C.J. Spiller tweeted. Sports columnist Dan Wetzel added, "My
fellow Americans, our brief national nightmare is over."

Avalanna Routh, a young, inspiring Justin Bieber
fan, is still trending this morning after her death from brain cancer. She was only 6. Her love for the teen pop star earned
Avalanna the nickname "Mrs. Bieber" and she got to go on a date with
her idol last February. Her family used
social media to get Bieber's attention, and the response was overwhelming. Bieber flew Avalanna and her mother to New
York for an early Valentine's Day date in which they played games and ate
cupcakes and candy. "One of the
best things I have ever done," he tweeted at the time.

Rumors swirled and reports surfaced on Wednesday
that Bobbi Kristina Brown might have been in a car accident in Alpharetta,
Georgia, but it appears her long-rumored boyfriend Nick Gordon was the only one
in the car. Police officers found his
Camaro sitting in a parking lot early Monday.
Gordon tweeted on Wednesday that "nobody was in the car when the
hit and run happened. A little
sore. Media blows things up." Brown's attorney told CNN that she was not
in the car at the time of the apparent accident. Brown, the 19-year-old daughter of Whitney
Houston and Bobby Brown, has been dating Gordon since earlier this year,
according to various reports.

Steve Irwin's son is apparently following in his
father's footsteps. A series of new
photos show 8-year-old Robert "Bob" Irwin handling a crocodile at the
Australia Zoo, which the Irwin family runs.
He even looks like dad with a mop of blonde hair. The Crocodile Hunter died in 2006 when a
stingray pierced Steve Irwin's chest while filming a documentary in the Great
Barrier Reef.

A Hong Kong real estate tycoon is offering
$65-million for a man to step up, win his daughter's heart and take her down
the aisle. Of course, there is a catch
to Cecil Chao Sze-tsung's offer. Gigi
Chao, 33, ran off to France last April and married her girlfriend of seven
years. The qualifications for
candidates seeking his daughter's heart… or hand, I guess really… are pretty
simple. He must be a heterosexual, rich
or poor, generous and kind-hearted.
Hmmm… given the fact that he is exploiting his daughter's rights in an
attempt to impose his own will, one might say the candidate can be nothing like
him.

From YouTube this morning, a duet with Siri.

Today's Gangnam -style video comes to us from Kyonggi University in
South Korea.

It seems people are sending all sorts of objects to
space these days. This guy sent his
son's favorite train "Stanley" into orbit with a weather
balloon. (Note: He says he called the FAA before launching
the balloon.)

09/26/2012

RIP Avalanna

“RIP Avalanna” has been trending worldwide on twitter all day for 6-year-old Avalanna Routh.

Routh, who called herself ‘Mrs. Bieber’ died from a rare brain cancer on Wednesday, according to her family, who announced the news in a tweet.

Her love for Justin Bieber prompted hospital workers to organize a pretend wedding, which then led to a social media campaign to help her meet the pop star in person. Bieber later met the Massachusetts girl in New York, and tweeted that it was “inspiring”, and one of the best things he has ever done.

On Wednesday, the singer took to twitter again to remember Avalanna.

Justin's tweets have caused Beliebers, and even fans of One Direction, known as "Directioners" to show their support.

Routh suffered from an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. Only 30 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

Lady Gaga, Diamonds and Sea Views

Good morning!

Lots of buzz about Lady Gaga's pictures of herself
in her underwear. She tweeted those
photos and posted them on her LittleMonsters.com website in response to
speculation about her weight gain.
"Today I join the BODY REVOLUTION.
To Inspire Bravery. And BREED
some *** COMPASSION," she tweeted.
"Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15."

Credit: http://littlemonsters.com

Several publications have been speculating
about her weight gain in recent months, which she has acknowledged to be about
25 pounds. After Gaga posted her
pictures, fans began posting their own stories and photos, including some who
wrote "Gaga made me brave to show my own image."

Rihanna's new single Diamonds debuted this morning,
and it's sparked a Twitter sensation under the hashtag #diamonds.

Mitt Romney's campaign says the candidate was only
joking when he wondered out loud why airplane windows don't open, but the story
has already gone viral. After his wife's
plane made an emergency landing last week, Romney told the Los Angeles Times
that he worried for her safety because "When you have a fire in an aircraft,
there's no place to go, exactly."
Then he pointed to the biggest problem.
"The windows don't open. I
don't know why they don't do that. It's
a real problem. So it's very
dangerous." For those of you who
do not know, windows in planes are kept closed because of the lack of oxygen at
cruising altitude to keep passengers alive.
That's why many planes are equipped with emergency oxygen masks. I don't know whether Romney was joking, but
he certainly has a way with words that go viral.

Has Paul Ryan gone rogue? A red hot story from Politico.com suggested
that Mitt Romney's running mate is not only distancing himself, but running for
the exits. According to the report,
Ryan is using the nickname "Stench" to refer to Romney, and has been
marching around the campaign bus saying, "If Stench calls, take a
message" and "Tell Stench I'm having finger sandwiches with Peggy
Noonan and will text him later."
The last straw was apparently an appearance before the AARP in New
Orleans last Friday when Ryan got booed and called a "liar" when
discussing "Obamacare" with his 78-year-old mother in the room. According to the report, that marked the end
of Ryan following Romney's game plan.

Google Maps has gone diving! Thanks to a partnership with The Catlin
Seaview Survey, you can now get "Street
Views" of the Great Barrier Reef and other popular underwater spots. Check out this story from TechCrunch.com to learn more.

Also from under the sea comes a viral video of a
dolphin giving birth. This video was
captured at Dolphin Quest in Hawaii.

Another political video has gone viral… this one is
from an Obama supporter, Nathan Barnatt, who performs his "Obama Works…
It" dance.

Some high school students in Kansas have a viral video
that is a protest over the healthy school lunches mandated by the federal
government for the first time this year. Students say the lunches are leaving
them hungry. The video is a cover of “We Are Young” with new lyrics.

Gangnam Style madness continues…. This time featuring the Ohio University
Marching Band.

09/25/2012

Replacement Refs, Dancing All-Stars and Things to do with an iPhone

Good morning!

The NFL and its replacement refs are all the rage
this morning, and I do mean rage, especially among Packers fans. In one of the most bizarre finishes to a game
in recent memory, the Seattle Seahawks were awarded a touchdown on a Hail Mary
pass that appeared to be an interception by Packers safety M.D. Jennings. The official with the best view appeared to
wave his hands over his head signaling touchBACK, but another official ran in
and put up his arms to signal a touchDOWN.

(AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Multiple replays from ESPN showed the second ref could not have had a
clear view of who had possession (Watch the video on ESPN.com). After
a brief conference, the refs officially signaled touchdown, which by rule meant
the play was not reviewable. Even
though the call on the field had to stand, the chaos continued for 10 minutes
before the extra point was kicked and the players headed off into the locker
room. "I've never seen anything
like that in all my years of football," Packers coach Mike McCarthy
said. He is not alone. The outrage was so intense on Twitter and
Facebook that those in the know began posting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's
cell phone number. Guess he'll be
changing that number, but the final score of the game will probably remain the
same.

The all-star season of Dancing With The Stars kicked
off without controversy, but with plenty of pizazz. This season features 12 dancers hoping for a
shot at redemption on the dance floor, including gold medalist Shawn Johnson,
Kelly Monaco, Melissa Rycroft, Pamela Anderson, Sabrina Bryan, Kirstie Alley,
Helo Castroneves, Joey Fatone, Drew Lachey, Apolo Anton Ohno and Emmitt
Smith. The rules have been tweaked to
allow half points, but the competition remains as fierce as ever. You can read all about night one in our
Mirror Ball blog, and tune in tonight to see which star is out.

(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Charlize Theron is trending thanks to rumors that
she is dating Eric Stonestreet. The
Modern Family star took to Twitter to clear up the confusion. "I wish people would stop spreading
rumors that Charlize Theron and I are dating.
It's starting to make Halle Berry jealous," Stonestreet tweeted.

Natalie Portman has created a buzz by going
blonde. Portman showed off her new look
at the Van Cleef & Arpels Dinner for the L.A. Dance Project over the
weekend. US Weekly reports that Portman
said the new hair is for an upcoming role, but did not elaborate.

The latest offering of political commercials is the
most popular share and one of the most viewed videos on YouTube. This one comes from Republicans backing Mitt
Romney.

Spearfishing did not go quite as planned for this
fisherman. The end result is a video
with more than a million views, but no fish to show for it!

Knicks' Iman Shumpert put the new iPhone 5 to the test… to see how
it performs as a basketball.

And finally, one more use for the iPhone, along with
the theme from Star Wars.

09/24/2012

The Emmys, Torrey Smith and the Shippo

Good morning!

The Emmys are a trending topic this morning after
ABC's Modern Family and Showtime's Homeland won big at last night's awards
ceremony. Modern Family captured four
comedy awards, including best comedy show.
The psychological thriller Homeland upset Mad Men to win best drama and
three other awards, including Claire Danes for best actress and Damian Lewis
for best actor. Michael J. Fox received a standing ovation as he
presented the final award. "I'm
steady as a rock," said Fox, who continues to act, 21 years after being diagnosed
with Parkinson's disease.

(AP Photo/ John Shearer)

Jimmy Kimmel
hosts the 64th annual awards, and he carried out his promised prank. Kimmel recruited 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan
to lie down on stage and asked audience members to tweet and post to Facebook,
"OMG Tracy Morgan just passed out onstage at the #Emmys. Turn on ABC now. "OMG Tracy Morgan" became a
trending topic worldwide almost instantly.
According to @TwitterTV, the prank sparked around 25,000 tweets. Morgan remained "passed out" on
stage while the Best Writing for a Drama award was presented. He remained there until 4 actors carried
Morgan offstage.

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith is a hot
topic after an agonizing day ended with an emotional victim. Smith's younger brother died in a motorcycle
crash in rural Virginia late Saturday night.
Smith received the call at 1:00 a.m. at his hotel room, and quickly
headed home. Smith wasn't sure he would
even suit up for the game, but decided to play. Smith caught a pair of touchdown passes in a
come-from-behind 31-30 victory over New England. After the game, he only wanted to talk about
his brother, Tevin. He graduated from
high school in 2010, where he played football and basketball. "When you'd see him mad, you'd always
laugh because it didn't look right," Smith said. "So to be around him, his big smile and
his laugh, which was probably one of the most annoying laughs ever. I'm definitely going to miss him," Smith
said. Tevin would have turned 20 this
coming Saturday.

(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Also buzzing after that game was Patriots head coach
Bill Belichick grabbing an official as he was leaving the field. It appeared to be an attempt to speak with
the official, but he ignored the grasp and continued off field. A total of 24 penalties were accepted in the
game, 10 of which were committed by New England. Belichick was visibly frustrated in the
post-game news conference, but deferred on commenting. "You'll have to talk to the officials
about the way they called the game, talk to the league about it, I don't
know," he said.

Twitter is buzzing with word that Queen Elizabeth
has made an unlikely purchase - four iconic screen prints of herself created by
Andy Warhol. The cult pop artist made
the prints in 1985. He once said,
"I want to be as famous as the Queen of England." Who knew she was a fan? The images are sprinkled with "diamond
dust," which is really fine particles of glass that sparkle in the light
like diamonds. The prints will be
displayed at an exhibition in Windsor Castle later this year to mark the
Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

A pretty amazing soccer highlight featuring
one-legged player Nico Calabria, a high school senior in Massachusetts, has
gone viral on YouTube.

Earlier this month, we saw the Popinator (which was
not real by the way) take YouTube by storm… this week, we have Shippo, the
brain controlled tail.

A terrifying site in Canada where a humpback whale got
caught on a boat anchor in Toquart Bay.
The whale drags the boat of a bit before freeing itself. The entire incident was caught on camera.

Finally, a squirrel on a kitchen rampage makes a
dramatic escape to safety.

09/21/2012

The Giants, Fioana Apple and the Hero Pig

Good morning!

The Giants are a towering trend on Twitter this
morning after a thumping of the Carolina Panthers, 36-7, on Thursday night
football. The Giants swarming defense
shut down Cam Newton, sending in five pass rushers at times and forcing two interceptions
in the process. Newton ended up with 3
interceptions and only 6 yards rushing - just days after a career-high 71 yards
against the Saints. Meanwhile, Andre Brown ran for a career-high 113 yards and
two touchdowns in his first NFL start to help lead the Giants to the win.

New York Giants' Andre Brown (35) leaps into the end zone for a
touchdown against the Carolina Panthers during the fourth quarter of an
NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. The
Giants won 36-7. (AP Photo/Mike McCarn)

Scarlett Johansson is a hot search after word that
she is returning to Broadway to star in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." She'll play Maggie the Cat in the play's
fifth Broadway revival. Johansson won a
Tony for her work in the Arthur Miller play "A View from a Bridge" in
2010. Benjamin Walker, who starred in
"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," will play her husband, Brick. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" will begin
previews at the Richard Rodgers Theater on December 18 and open on January 17.

Another Tony-award winning actor, Ben Vereen, is
making news off the stage. Vereen filed
for divorce from his wife of 36 years.
The actor and dancer married Nancy Bruner Vereen in July 1976. Court papers cite irreconcilable differences
as the reason for the split. They
apparently separated last March.
Vereen, 65, won a best actor in a musical Tony for his role in
"Pippin" in 1973.

Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple joins the list of
celebrities busted for hashish in West Texas.

(AP Photo/Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office)

A drug-sniffing dog detected marijuana in her tour bus at a checkpoint
in Sierra Blanca. Other celebrities
arrested in Sierre Blanca on marijuana charges including country singer Willie
Nelson, rapper Snoop Dogg and actor Armand Hammer. Apple spent the night in jail before posting
bail on Thursday.

Paris Hilton is apologizing after a video surfaced
online in which she was overheard saying gay men were "disgusting"
and "probably had AIDS."
Ironically, RadarOnline.com reports the audio was recorded while Hilton
was riding in a cab with an "openly gay male model" during Fashion
Week in New York on September 7. Hilton
issued a lengthy apology to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation. "Gay people are the
strongest and most inspiring people I know," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Roscoe Dash became a Twitter trend after
spending most of the day complaining about not receiving proper credit on songs
like "To the World" on Cruel Summer and "Lotus Flower Bomb"
on Ambition. He tweeted that he wrote
the hook on Wale's Number 1 hit single sung by Miguel. For
his part, Miguel called the claims "retarded" and said the
"people who deserve credit on the song are listed."

The new iPhone is out today and here's a look at it
like you will see nowhere else.

Here's a strange video about a man and his mullet.

And here we have compilation of some of the
strangest homes that you will ever see.

Finally, a couple of unusual animal videos… first,
gorillas and the caterpillar.

09/20/2012

Apple iOS 6, Robin's Message and Obama in Space

Good morning!

Apple iOS 6 is a hot topic on Twitter this morning
after the company rolled out the new update to its operating system, ahead of
tomorrow's release of the iPhone 5. The
cool new features including sync notes (so you can access notes written on your
iPhone on a Mac, iPad and iCloud.com), Facebook integration, a new Maps app (to
replace Google Maps), a "do not disturb" setting, VIP Mail so you can quickly access email from
important people in your life, an improved Siri, shared photo streams, passbook
(to store stuff like movie tickets and boarding pass digitally), an improved
Safari browser, and FaceTime over celluar.
It's not perfect, though. The
Maps app is lacking some key features found in Google Maps (like transit
directions) and YouTube integration is gone too.

(Robin Roberts/Facebook)

“Good
Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts
sent a message to fans and supporters during her treatment for MDS this morning. "This journey is as much about the mind
as it is the body," she said, in a video that aired on "GMA"
today. "Your thoughts. Thoughts
are so powerful. You've got to change the way you think in order to change the
way you feel. And let me just say this lastly, I feel the love and I thank you
for it. Thank you." You can see
the full message on ABCNews.com at http://abcn.ws/SEazlf.

Jimmy Kimmel rolled out the red carpet for this
Sunday's Emmy Awards, promising to "prank" those not watching the
show. "If it goes badly, it won't be
so great. I think it will go well. If you're watching, you'll be in on it. If you're not, you might get caught up the in
the prank," he said. Kimmel is
hosting the Emmys for the first time.
You can see the 64th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night
beginning at 7:00 on ABC 7.

Whoopi Goldberg was absent from The View on
Wednesday, but she unleashed a rant on Mitt Romney on Twitter last night. Goldberg, in response to Romney's 47 per
cent video, tweeted that his remarks soured her on his candidacy. "The man I was talking about turned into
a man who flushed his ideals down the drain," she tweeted. "Your desperation to be President made
you forget your ideals." Earlier
in the day, Romney's campaign indicated the candidate would make an appearance
on The View in October. That should be
interesting.

Clint Eastwood on gay marriage is trending. In an interview, Eastwood defined himself as
a Libertarian and said his stance on marriage equality is a libertarian
idea. "Leave everybody alone!"
he said. Eastwood, 82, added that we
have bigger issues to address than worrying about gay marriage.

Monica Lewinsky is shopping a tell-all book about
her intern days in President Clinton's White House. Lewinsky, who turns 40 next year, has never
gotten explicit in previous interviews about her affair with Clinton, but
according to reports, she plans to reveal everything in a $12-million
memoir. Although Lewinsky has had no
comment, friends say she has had a difficult time finding work in the 14 years
since the scandal and needs the money.

Quarterback Vince Young
is broke, according to his lawyer.
Young entered the NFL with a $26-million guaranteed contract, but after
stints in Tennessee, Philadelphia and Buffalo, only a fraction of that money
remains. Young is suing his former
agent and a financial planner, alleging they misappropriated $5.5 million. The lawsuit contends the pair forged his
signature or impersonated him on the phone or in emails. The suit was filed after a New York lender
notified Young that a $1.9 million loan obtained in his name was in
default. A countersuit alleges Young
is a reckless spender who went through money like water.

In the middle of a heated pennant race against the
Yankees, the Orioles called up 19-year-old Dylan Bundy. The team had few other options after an
18-inning marathon win against Seattle on Tuesday night. Bundy will be the first Orioles pitcher to
debut before his 20th birthday since 1967.
He'll be pitching out of the bullpen to start, and it would appear the
Orioles will need his services. They
played another extra-inning game in Seattle last night, and won - their 15th
straight win in extra innings.

In a move certain to make Republicans and critics
happy, President Obama has been sent to outer space.

In another out of this world video, someone created
one of the biggest Lego contraption you will ever see.

Why did the chicken cross the road? The question gets explored in this viral
video.